How to get rid of my reflection in car photography?

[magomago]

A friend got a new car and asked me to take some pics. I did some reading, practiced on site where I was interested in shooting. The places all said do not shoot perpendicular to a surface, or else I will appear as a reflection. It also recommended shooting at waist level to mitigate this.

...yet in all my shots I appear as a reflection anyways! How do I avoid this? The only way I've been able to is if i position myself in front of the wheels where the rubber obviously doesn't reflect. Of course I don't want to be stuck to some variation of 30/70 or 60/40 the entire time. This is important because I want to pull some nice side shots....I'm thinking of using cable release and just hope that the camera isn't too noticeable.

Any tips? Thanks

 

[Kelvrick]

What kind of camera do you have? Have a circular polarizer?

 

[OdiN]

Circular polarizer will help tremendously.

But the shots you see in magazines are likely done with a rig, then the rig photoshopped out. And if not, any reflections that they don't like are photoshopped out.

 

[magomago]

K100D. I do have a circular polarizer. I didn't have it with me the few times I practiced (it was at a different residence) but I'll give it a shot. Wouldn't that polarizer remove the nice reflection of the the environment around the car (providing there is something worth shooting around the car ) ? Or does it not affect that?

 

[OdiN]

Well depends on what you want.

It will have the largest effect on windows and a nicely polished paint job. It may affect what you want, may not. Try it out You can't selectively take out some reflections and not others. It's all based on the angle you're shooting from.

Typically, a nice sunset reflected in paint is great for car shots.

 

[Fardringle]

This obviously isn't an "artistic" photo since it was just done as a test to see what a good circular polarizer can do to window reflections. Both shots were taken from inside my car on a partly cloudy day with the sun above and ahead of the front window (I took the picture through that window). As you can see in this picture without a polarizer, there is a lot of glare on all of the vehicles in the parking lot as well as reflections of my dashboard on the inside of windshield. This is what happened when I took the same shot with a polarizer.

 

[magomago]

Originally posted by: OdiN
Well depends on what you want.

It will have the largest effect on windows and a nicely polished paint job. It may affect what you want, may not. Try it out You can't selectively take out some reflections and not others. It's all based on the angle you're shooting from.

Typically, a nice sunset reflected in paint is great for car shots.

Damn straight to the bold...I was just curious since I was at work I noticed that it does selectively take out reflections...gives it a different view. If we consider an XYZ axis where X is along the longitude of the car and Z is the height, I noticed that turning on the polarizer creates lines in the Z plane that are parallel with the X direction.

I was actually practicing during sunset because that was said to be the most pleasing (makes sense since the light isn't direction and harsh)
This makes things more complicated only because it means I want more shots with and without the polarizer

 

[foghorn67]

You need to be a vampire. My theory is the good car photographers were once bitten.

 

[magomago]

Originally posted by: foghorn67
You need to be a vampire. My theory is the good car photographers were once bitten.

LOL...explain this a little bit. I thik I have an idea, but its nothign solid

 

[kyzen]

Originally posted by: magomago

Originally posted by: foghorn67
You need to be a vampire. My theory is the good car photographers were once bitten.

LOL...explain this a little bit. I thik I have an idea, but its nothign solid

My guess: vampires don't have reflections

 

[dmw16]

Autopia.org has a lot of people posting car pictures and many of them seem pretty accomplished at it. Maybe ask over there?